Wednesday, June 15, 2005
Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, mclarty@greens.org
Nancy Allen, Media Coordinator, 207-326-4576, nallen@acadia.net
GREENS: STATES AND CITIES SHOULD MAINTAIN ACCESS
TO MEDICAL MARIJUANA, DESPITE SUPREME COURT RULING
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Green Party leaders urged
state and municipal governments to maintain access to medical
marijuana, in accord with democratically enacted local laws, despite
the Supreme Court's ruling on June 6 in favor of federal prosecution.
"Numerous cities have passed resolutions
condemning the USA Patriot Act for violating basic constitutional
rights and condemning the invasion of Iraq" said Maya O'Connor,
co-chair of the Green Party of the United States, who noted that many
of these resolutions were passed through the efforts of Green elected
officials and lobbying efforts led by Greens. "We urge city and
state legislatures to adopt similar resolutions defending locally
enacted laws allowing medical marijuana."
A list of cities and city councils that have
passed resolutions against the Iraq invasion can be found at <http://www.ips-dc.org/citiesforpeace/resolutions.htm>.
For states and cities that have passed statements
criticizing the USA Patriot Act and upholding the Constitution, visit
<http://www.bordc.org/list.php?sortAlpha=1>.
Greens defended the right of state and local
governments to act in the best interests of their constituents and for
the right to life and health of people suffering AIDS, cancer,
glaucoma, and other ailments for which marijuana has provided quick
and effective relief.
"The Supreme Court, in upholding federal
power to override state laws allowing medical marijuana, endorsed the
growing attacks on civil liberties, federal usurpation of state and
local law enforcement power, and concentration of power in the
executive branch, especially in the Justice Department," said Nan
Garrett, Georgia Green and Spokesperson for the National Women's
Caucus. "The War on Drugs has all along been an effort to target
and criminalize African Americans, young people, and other populations
that have been disproportionally prosecuted and incarcerated. The Drug
War's emphasis on marijuana, which does vastly less damage to health
than alcohol and has a near-zero fatality rate, proves that marijuana
prosecution has nothing to do with law and order or public
health."
The Green Party supports decriminalization of
drugs, especially marijuana, calling drug abuse a medical problem
requiring treatment instead of a crime, and urges Congress to change
national drug laws.
Greens have supported and worked for passage of
medical marijuana ballot measures. In Washington, D.C., members of the
Green and Statehood Parties (before their merger into the D.C.
Statehood Green Party in 1999) collected thousands of signatures for
Initiative 59 in 1998, which passed with a 69% before Congress
exercised its veto power over D.C. laws and overrode the vote.
"The fact that the Supreme Court's liberal
justices all voted for federal power to prosecute, while three of the
most conservative justices [William Rehnquist, Clarence Thomas, Sandra
Day O'Connor] dissented on the basis of states' rights, suggests that
the Court ignored considerations of public health," said Jake
Schneider, treasurer of the Green Party of the United States.
"During the past generation, Democrats like President Clinton and
Sen. Joe Biden [Del.] have joined Republicans in their zeal for
harsher drug laws, despite the ruined lives, broken families, and
wrecked communities resulting from the War on Drugs. Greens challenge
states and cities to 'just say no' and stand up for sane public health
policy, for civil liberties, and for their own citizens'
democratically expressed endorsement of access to medical
marijuana."
MORE INFORMATION
Green Party of the United States
http://www.gp.org
1711 18th Street NW
Washington, DC 20009.
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
Fax 202-319-7193
Green Party Statement on Medical Marijuana, April, 1998
http://www.gpus.org/position/marijuana.html
"The War on Marijuana: The Transformation of the War on Drugs in
the 1990s"
Report by Ryan S. King and Marc Mauer, Research Associate and
Assistant
Director, respectively, of The Sentencing Project, May, 2005
http://www.sentencingproject.org/pdfs/waronmarijuana.pdf
http://www.sentencingproject.org
"Pot: The sine qua non of a drug war"
By Sam Smith, The Progressive Review, May 4, 2005
http://prorev.com/2005/05/pot-sina-qua-non-of-drug-war.htm